Still on the Southern Kaduna massacres

SIR: The killings of Southern Kaduna indigenes by Fulani herdsmen, for whatever reasons, are nothing but fatal assaults on the humanity in all of us. Every life wasted in Southern Kaduna is humanity wasted; and, too many lives have been lost. Those alive are living on the tenterhooks; and, to live on the tenterhooks in one’s ancestral home is not the best way to live.

The governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai has been blamed for waging an unrelenting media campaign against southern Kaduna people. He is said to have failed in his responsibility to maintain the peace and order in the area as the state’s chief security officer. Perhaps, if the governor had shown sincere empathy, he would have acted proactively to avert the latest attack of April 15, in Asso Village in Jema’a Local Government Area, in which no fewer than 13 people, including a parish priest, Reverend Father Alexander Yayock, were killed. He should have deployed the paraphernalia of security to mobilize thorough surveillance based on credible intelligence report of potential flashpoints.

Close watchers of the developments are inclined to conclude that the state government may have decided, for reasons best known to it, not to care about the population facing real threat of annihilation. This must have, perhaps, prompted the alarm raised by the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Samson Ayokunle, over the inability of the federal government to stop the killings.

All the attacks that had taken place have been executed with precision, leaving devastations in their trails. Both domestic and international observers have been shell-shocked at the persistent ease with which these harbingers of death stealthily make their ways into the communities and villages in Southern Kaduna, unleash mayhem therein and egress to celebrate the slaughter of the so-called infidels.

To be sure, Ayokunle’s indictment of the federal government at a press conference held Friday, April 21, in Abuja ahead of the 104th annual session of the Nigerian Baptist Convention came on the heels of the launch of Harbin Kunama II (Scorpion Sting) at a forest between Kagoro and Kafanchan, southern part of Kaduna State by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai.

The operation which, according to the army, would last for a month is aimed at addressing the issue of insecurity in southern part of Kaduna, Kano, Plateau and Bauchi states. Ayokunle must have, in the meantime, been circumspect about the sincerity and success of the operation.

The extent to which the operation will go to put a stop to the massacres in southern Kaduna is yet unknown, given its ad-hoc nature, which targets a one-month period. The herdsmen should be credited with some strategic intelligence. They can suspend their surprise attacks for that long, wait for the military to pull out before launching fresh hostilities. The operation should be sustained up until the chances of further attacks by the armed herdsmen are either rendered very slim or completely eliminated.

As the army plans to lock down some forests of Kano, Plateau and Bauchi states in the operation, more attention should be invested on Southern Kaduna given the peculiarity and the nature of the constant tragic attacks by armed herdsmen. The area should be the launch-pad to drive the operation to the other identified states. And, as positive results are yielded, the operation may well renew the people’s hope and confidence in government’s ability to protect them.